Joining at 14

Our Key Stage 4 curriculum has been designed to combine academic achievement with the development of engineering and entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. In Year 10 you will study the study the following curriculum:

In PSHE you will explore and discuss issues around ethics, social and cultural awareness, sex education, citizenship, environmental factors, economics and British values.

In addition to your GCSE studies, there will be PE one afternoon a week, with options that typically include swimming, football, baseball and netball.

The extracurricular activity programme includes options such as mountain biking, sailing and circus training. This is dependent on availability, levels of interest and seasonality.

Our employer partners help provide additional technical expertise and opportunities for work placements for all our students. They will set real life enterprise challenges for you as part of our focus on helping our students develop the entrepreneurial skills that are in demand by employers.

You will also be offered two weeks of high quality work experience.

Additional support

You also benefit from an extended day Monday to Thursday each week. You can remain at the UTC for up to 1.5 hours after lessons to learn or work independently with the support of specialist subject teachers.

Modern Languages

We believe that learning a modern foreign language is an extremely important skill to develop. However to be successful you really have to be committed, which is why we have placed this option as part of our enrichment programme. Our language offer is about developing real communication skills – and we work with students from the Pablo Neruda technical school in Dieppe to do just that!

Student Soundbite

“We are a small and close-knit community. We’re all supported and share the same goals.”

Learning business skills

Our whole learning environment is configured for anyone who is passionate about succeeding in business in the real world. Entrepreneurship and enterprise is at the heart of our curriculum. Our partnerships with local businesses mean that you learn from industry professionals as well as teachers.

What is a UTC?

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) teach students technical and scientific subjects to educate the inventors, engineers, scientists and technicians of tomorrow. At UTC@harbourside our focus is on engineering, a real interest in the environment and in creating a sustainable future. The UTC works with leading employers to give students who are motivated by science, maths and computing the real skills and qualifications they need to succeed in the workplace, at university and beyond.